People Inc. Advocacy

Join us at the Disability Pride Festival, July 26th from 2 pm until 6 pm at Canalside.

Happy 4th of July from the Advocacy Department at People Inc ❤️

Hi everyone if you are LGBTQ+ and have a disability we are having a picnic on June 30th at front park beginning at 11:30am hope to see you there!

Dear Friends, Supporters, Allies and Community Members:
Did you know that people with developmental disabilities who learn to speak up for themselves experience increased self-esteem, independence, and self-confidence? At the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State, Inc. (SANYS), we work hard to teach the skills necessary to become strong self-advocates, which allows people with developmental disabilities to experience an enjoyable quality of life.
We couldn’t do the work we do without the help of generous people and organizations such as yourselves. We write to you today to invite you to become a 2024 SANYS financial sponsor. Your contribution would support SANYS’ important work, especially our annual statewide and regional conferences.
SANYS is a not-for-profit organization, Tax ID # 13-3553539, developed and run by individuals with developmental disabilities. SANYS’ vision promotes the awareness and recognition of our civil rights and responsibilities, which include the opportunities and choices of equal citizenship. We embody an unshakeable belief in the power of the human voice to make a better world for oneself and others.
SANYS’ mission is to help people with disabilities learn to speak up for themselves, individually and collectively, as leaders in the community. SANYS’ goal is to support new and existing self-advocacy groups. Members of SANYS Self-Advocacy Member Groups and Supported Groups learn to speak up and become leaders within their communities. In addition, as part of a SANYS Member Group, group leaders can run for election to the SANYS Statewide Board of Directors for a term of three years.
Additionally, SANYS hosts annual regional and statewide conferences. These conferences are open to all and offer the opportunity for peer workshop training experiences and social and professional networking. You will learn more about your regional conference and our statewide conference below.
This Year’s Western New York (WNY: Buffalo and Finger Lakes) Regional Conference will be held on June 6th and 7th at The Hyatt Regency Rochester, NY. The Theme is: Self-Advocacy: Advocacy is Our Thing! Every year people look forward to learning more about speaking up for themselves and others and having a great time meeting up with old friends and making new ones. Whatever the reason, we think you’ll agree that having annual forums that offer these types of opportunities to people with disabilities, both regionally and statewide, is important. While these events are focused on self-advocates, SANYS also welcomes their families, support staff and the general community as an opportunity to enrich the lives of all.
In addition to supporting the upcoming, local two-day, one-night SANYS WNY Regional Conference, you’d also be helping to sponsor the SANYS Statewide Conference which is a multi-day event held each Fall with an average of over 600 registrants. This event offers additional opportunities to enrich the lives of all participants across the state. Some self-advocates have shared that going out of town for the statewide conference has helped them realize that they are part of a larger self-advocacy community and can access opportunities beyond their own region.
Your financial sponsorship today will support both the regional and statewide conference experiences for people as well as the general mission of SANYS. We thank you for your consideration in being a 2024 SANYS financial sponsor.
As a sponsor, you would be encouraged to share the news, register for, and attend the regional and statewide conferences as a participant. The regional conference registration link is: https://sanys.salsalabs.org/wnyfl2024/index.html
Statewide conference registrations will be available online in the Fall at sanys.org or can be ordered by calling (518) 382-1454.

If you or your organization is interested in becoming a 2024 SANYS sponsor, please see the sponsor level descriptions below and complete the form either online or printed out and mailed. Details below.
Yes, I would like to sponsor SANYS’ important work and events. All sponsors will be recognized as indicated by level below:
Please write your business/individual name and indicate the donation amount in the designated spaces below.
(Business/Agency or Individual Name) ______________________________________. chooses to be a 2024 SANYS Sponsor in the amount of: $___________________.

Diamond Sponsor $5000 and above
• Logo/Name included in conference materials and 2024 Sponsors web page by contribution level
• Complimentary vendor table at regional conference as available
• Sponsors announced at conference by contribution level
• Covers registration for 2 people to statewide and regional conferences (holds no monetary reimbursement value)

Platinum Sponsor $3500-4,999
• Logo/Name included in conference materials and 2024 Sponsors web page by contribution level
• Complimentary vendor table at regional conference as available
• Sponsors announced at conference by contribution level
• Covers registration for 1 person to statewide and regional conferences (holds no monetary reimbursement value)

Gold Sponsor $2000 - $3499
• Logo/Name included in conference materials and 2024 Sponsors web page by contribution level
• Complimentary vendor table at regional conference as available
• Sponsors announced at conference by contribution level
• Covers registration for 1 person to regional conference (holds no monetary reimbursement value)

Silver Sponsor $500 - $1999
• Logo/Name included in conference materials and 2024 Sponsors web page by contribution level
• Sponsors announced at conference by contribution level

Bronze Sponsorship: $499 or below
• Name included in conference materials & listed on 2024 Sponsors Web page by contribution level


Please list the contact information of the person to follow up with regarding this sponsorship.
Name: _______________________________________________
Phone: ________________________
Email: _________________________

If paying by check, please mail your contribution no later than May 17th, 2024,
made payable to “SANYS”, along with a copy of this letter to:
The Self-Advocacy Association of NYS (SANYS)
620 Westfall Road, Suite 652,
Attn: 2024 SANYS Mission/Conference/WNY

Or click the link below to sponsor via Credit Card
https://sanys.salsalabs.org/2024SANYSGeneralMissionConferenceFundraisingWNY

We look forward to hearing from you - thank you!

Sincerely,
SANYS Executive Team, Board Members, and Staff

Consider becoming a 2024 Sponsor in support of The Self-Advocacy Association of NYS, Inc. (SANYS) general mission: Speaking Up for Ourselves and Others, as well as the statewide and regional self-advocacy conferences Do you believe in equal rights for people with disabilities? Consider becoming a financial sponsor of the Self Advocacy Association of NYS (SANYS) to help us achieve our mission "Speaking Up for Ourselves and Others"

Hello everyone please join us at Dash's market on Saturday April 13th from 1-2:30pm for snacks and coffee the address is 1770 Hertel Ave bring your own money please!

It's Deaf History Month!

Throughout this month, People Inc. is celebrating the rich heritage & contributions of the Deaf community. Starting next week, we ask you to join us as we highlight prominent figures who have made a lasting impact.

Let's honor their resilience, culture & achievements together!

For more information about Deaf services:
www.wnydas.org/

Friendly Reminder of our PrideAbility Meeting tonight 3/4/24 from 5-6pm at 2128 Elmwood- front entrance. We will be meeting in room 104b. Zoom is also available Meeting ID 716 322 7070 - Hope to see you tonight!
Rick

People, inc. Advocacy continues its celebration of Black History Month. Today, we honor the Life and Legacy of Thurgood Marshall...

Thurgood Marshall - Wikipedia Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-American justice. Prior to his judicial ser...

People, inc. Advocacy continues its celebration of Black History Month. Today, we honor the Life and Legacy of Maya Angelo...

Maya Angelou: Beloved American Author and Activist A multitalented legendary figure, Maya Angelou was a poet, groundbreaking author, actor, and civil rights activist best known for writing her 1969 memoir ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.’

People Inc. Advocacy continues it's celebration of Black History Month. Today, we honor the Life and Legacy of Carl Brashear.

Carl Brashear - Wikipedia Carl Maxie Brashear (January 19, 1931 – July 25, 2006) was a United States Navy sailor. He was a Master Diver, rising to the position in 1970, despite having his left leg amputated in 1966. The 2000 film Men of Honor was based on his life.

People, inc. Advocacy continues its celebration of Black History Month. Today, we honor the Life and Legacy of Medgar Evers:

Medgar Evers - Wikipedia Medgar Wiley Evers (/ˈmɛdɡər/; July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served in World War II, was engaged in eff...

People, inc. Advocacy continues its celebration of Black History Month. Today, we honor the Life and Legacy of Jesse Owens.

Jesse Owens - Wikipedia James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.[3]

Don't miss this exciting event!

Celebrating 15 years of Spread the Word!!

Join us on Wednesday, March 6, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Tri-Main Center (2495 Main Street, Buffalo) to celebrate 15 years of empowering individuals to take action and create a more inclusive community to learn, work, play, and live in.

Please share with those who may be interested in attending!!

People, inc. Advocacy continues its celebration of Black History Month. Today, we honor the Life and Legacy of Katherine G. Johnson...

Katherine Johnson - Wikipedia Creola Katherine Johnson (née Coleman; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights.[1][2] During her 33-year career at NASA and its...

People, inc. Advocacy continues its celebration of Black History Month. Today we honor the Life and Legacy of Dr. Sylvia Walker...

If the name DR. Sylvia Walker does not sound familiar to you, you are not alone. I was not familiar with Dr. Walker myself when I received this blog assignment. I knew the names of many disability advocates such as Judith Heumann and Justin Whitlock Dart Jr., and their role in paving the way for the equal rights and accessible world I now live in. Thanks to some research, Dr. Sylvia Walker will be another name I always remember and affiliate with greater accessibility for all.

Dr. Sylvia Walker was born in New York City, New York on July 18, 1937. She was blind, and few had expectations for her beyond the typical jobs such as clerical work. Dr. Walker was determined to gain an education and advocate for minorities such as herself; Sylvia was blind and African American. After more than 10 years and four degrees, Dr. Walker became an assistant professor in the School of Education at Howard University, located in Washington, D.C. It didn’t take Dr. Walker long to become a full-time professor, and she immediately began researching the lack of accessibility for all people living with disabilities, especially minority people. She founded the Center for the Study of Handicapped Children and Youth at Howard University in 1975; this has been renamed to the Howard University Center for Disability and Socioeconomic Policy Studies.

Dr. Walker served as director for her entire life, and played an integral role in identifying the need for Rehabilitation services for minority persons with disabilities. She did not focus her advocacy on one minority, however; she ensured that all ethnic and racial groups such as Hispanics, American Indians, and Asians had equal access to the services they deserved. Dr. Walker penned many articles about the daily struggles minorities and persons with disabilities faced at that time, as well as the necessity of a quality education for these populations. Such contributions helped to spawn the legislation which lead to the ADA, and other laws.

In 1994, President Clinton appointed Dr. Walker as the vice chair of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (PCEPD). In 1995, Dr. Walker founded the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) with fellow activists I. King Jordan, Paul Hearne, John D. Kemp, and Justin Whitlock Dart Jr. The AAPD works to expand the overall economic and political power of individuals living with disabilities. Dr. Walker’s extensive work on behalf of minorities living with disabilities was acknowledged by the NAACP’s “Keeper of the Flame” award in 2000.

Dr. Sylvia Walker died on February 6, 2004, but her legacy lives on through the countless lives she enhanced, the services she augmented, the legislation passed, the articles she wrote, and the groups she founded. She was an advocate and a champion for those of us living with disabilities, and we should strive to continue the path she took on a national and international level.

Read more about Dr. Sylvia Walker and her work as an advocate for people with disabilities.

From Respectability.org

Honor Black History Month Visit www.RespectAbility.org/BHM for more information. In honor of Black History Month, RespectAbility produced a new PSA campaign featuring Black disabled creatives.…

Just wanted to highlight this awesome woman Andrea Dalzell. Who as a registered nurse worked during one of the most difficult times in our life the COVID-19 pandemic. Andrea worked in one of the hardest places to be during COVID NYC. Thank you for your hard work and dedication!

Advocates come join the People Inc. Advocacy team at Dash's Market this Saturday at 1770 Hertel Ave. from 1pm-2:30pm for our monthly meet up! We didn't get to meet last month because of the storm so join us this month! Bring money there will be food and beverages to purchase.

Hope some of you will try out!

People, inc. Advocacy continues its celebration of Black History Month. Today, we honor the Life and Legacy of Rosa Parks...

"Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Led by a young Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the boycott lasted more than a year—during which Parks not coincidentally lost her job—and ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Over the next half-century, Parks became a nationally recognized symbol of dignity and strength in the struggle to end entrenched racial segregation."

Rosa Parks’ Early Life
Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. She moved with her parents, James and Leona McCauley, to Pine Level, Alabama, at age 2 to reside with Leona’s parents. Her brother, Sylvester, was born in 1915, and shortly after that her parents separated.

Did you know? When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955, it wasn’t the first time she’d clashed with driver James Blake. Parks stepped onto his very crowded bus on a chilly day 12 years earlier, paid her fare at the front, then resisted the rule in place for Black people to disembark and re-enter through the back door. She stood her ground until Blake pulled her coat sleeve, enraged, to demand her cooperation. Parks left the bus rather than give in.

Rosa’s mother was a teacher, and the family valued education. Rosa moved to Montgomery, Alabama, at age 11 and eventually attended high school there, a laboratory school at the Alabama State Teachers’ College for Negroes. She left at 16, early in 11th grade, because she needed to care for her dying grandmother and, shortly thereafter, her chronically ill mother. In 1932, at 19, she married Raymond Parks, a self-educated man 10 years her senior who worked as a barber and was a long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He supported Rosa in her efforts to earn her high-school diploma, which she ultimately did the following year.

Rosa Parks: Roots of Activism
Raymond and Rosa, who worked as a seamstress, became respected members of Montgomery’s large African American community. Co-existing with white people in a city governed by “Jim Crow” (segregation) laws, however, was fraught with daily frustrations: Black people could attend only certain (inferior) schools, could drink only from specified water fountains and could borrow books only from the “Black” library, among other restrictions.

Although Raymond had previously discouraged her out of fear for her safety, in December 1943, Rosa also joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and became chapter secretary. She worked closely with chapter president Edgar Daniel (E.D.) Nixon. Nixon was a railroad porter known in the city as an advocate for Black people who wanted to register to vote, and also as president of the local branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union.

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks Is Arrested
On Thursday, December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old Rosa Parks was commuting home from a long day of work at the Montgomery Fair department store by bus. Black residents of Montgomery often avoided municipal buses if possible because they found the Negroes-in-back policy so demeaning. Nonetheless, 70 percent or more riders on a typical day were Black, and on this day Rosa Parks was one of them.

Segregation was written into law; the front of a Montgomery bus was reserved for white citizens, and the seats behind them for Black citizens. However, it was only by custom that bus drivers had the authority to ask a Black person to give up a seat for a white rider. There were contradictory Montgomery laws on the books: One said segregation must be enforced, but another, largely ignored, said no person (white or Black) could be asked to give up a seat even if there were no other seat on the bus available.

Nonetheless, at one point on the route, a white man had no seat because all the seats in the designated “white” section were taken. So the driver told the riders in the four seats of the first row of the “colored” section to stand, in effect adding another row to the “white” section. The three others obeyed. Parks did not.

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired,” wrote Parks in her autobiography, “but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Eventually, two police officers approached the stopped bus, assessed the situation and placed Parks in custody.
Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Although Parks used her one phone call to contact her husband, word of her arrest had spread quickly and E.D. Nixon was there when Parks was released on bail later that evening. Nixon had hoped for years to find a courageous Black person of unquestioned honesty and integrity to become the plaintiff in a case that might become the test of the validity of segregation laws. Sitting in Parks’ home, Nixon convinced Parks—and her husband and mother—that Parks was that plaintiff. Another idea arose as well: The Black population of Montgomery would boycott the buses on the day of Parks’ trial, Monday, December 5. By midnight, 35,000 flyers were being mimeographed to be sent home with Black schoolchildren, informing their parents of the planned boycott.

On December 5, Parks was found guilty of violating segregation laws, given a suspended sentence and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs. Meanwhile, Black participation in the boycott was much larger than even optimists in the community had anticipated. Nixon and some ministers decided to take advantage of the momentum, forming the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to manage the boycott, and they elected Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.–new to Montgomery and just 26 years old—as the MIA’s president.

As appeals and related lawsuits wended their way through the courts, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Montgomery Bus Boycott engendered anger in much of Montgomery’s white population as well as some violence, and Nixon’s and Dr. King’s homes were bombed. The violence didn’t deter the boycotters or their leaders, however, and the drama in Montgomery continued to gain attention from the national and international press.

On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional; the boycott ended December 20, a day after the Court’s written order arrived in Montgomery. Parks—who had lost her job and experienced harassment all year—became known as “the mother of the civil rights movement.”

Rosa Parks's Life After the Boycott
Facing continued harassment and threats in the wake of the boycott, Parks, along with her husband and mother, eventually decided to move to Detroit, where Parks’ brother resided. Parks became an administrative aide in the Detroit office of Congressman John Conyers Jr. in 1965, a post she held until her 1988 retirement. Her husband, brother and mother all died of cancer between 1977 and 1979. In 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, to serve Detroit’s youth.

In the years following her retirement, she traveled to lend her support to civil-rights events and causes and wrote an autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story. In 1999, Parks was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the United States bestows on a civilian. (Other recipients have included George Washington, Thomas Edison, Betty Ford and Mother Teresa.) When she died at age 92 on October 24, 2005, she became the first woman in the nation’s history to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol.

In Celebration of Black History Month, People, inc. Advocacy honors the Life and Legacy of Bessie Coleman ...
Bessie Coleman soared across the sky as the first woman of African American and Native American descent to earn her pilot’s license in the U.S. Known for performing flying tricks, Coleman’s nicknames were: “Brave Bessie,” “Queen Bess,” and “The Only Race Aviatrix in the World.” Her goal was to encourage women and African Americans to reach their dreams – and this became her legacy. Though her life and career were cut short in a tragic plane crash, her life and legacy continue to inspire people around the world.

Born in Atlanta, Texas on January 26, 1892, Bessie Coleman had twelve brothers and sisters. Her mother, Susan Coleman, was an African American maid, and her father George Coleman was a sharecropper of mixed Native American and African American descent. In 1901, her father decided to move back to Oklahoma to try to escape discrimination. Coleman’s mother decided not to go with him. Instead, Coleman, her mother, and siblings stayed in Waxahachie, Texas. Coleman grew up helping her mother pick cotton and wash laundry to earn extra money. By the time she was eighteen, she saved enough money to attend the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University) in Langston, Oklahoma. She dropped out of college after only one semester because she could no longer afford tuition.

At age 23, Coleman went to live with her brothers in Chicago. She went to the Burnham School of Beauty Culture in 1915 and became a manicurist in a local barbershop. Meanwhile, her brothers served in the military during World War I and came home with stories of their time in France. Her brother John teased her because French women were allowed to learn how to fly airplanes and, in the United States, Coleman could not. Her brother's stories, along with other news of pilots in the war, inspired her to become a pilot. She applied to many flight schools across the country, but no school would take her because she was both African American and a woman. Robert Abbot, a famous African American newspaper publisher told her to move to France where she could learn how to fly. Since her application to flight schools needed to be written in French, she began taking French classes at night. Finally, Coleman was accepted at the Caudron Brothers' School of Aviation in Le Crotoy, France. She received her international pilot’s license on June 15, 1921 from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. She then returned to the United States.

Coleman’s dream was to own a plane and to open her own flight school. She gave speeches and showed films of her air tricks at churches, theaters, and schools to earn money. She refused to speak anywhere that was segregated or discriminated against African Americans. In 1922, she performed the first public flight by an African American woman. She was famous for doing “loop-the-loops” and making the shape of an “8” in an airplane. People were fascinated by her performances, and she became more popular both in the United States and in Europe. She toured the country giving flight lessons and performing in flight shows, and she encouraged African Americans and women to learn how to fly.

Only two years into her flight career, Coleman survived her first major airplane accident. In February 1923, her airplane engine suddenly stopped working mid-flight and she crashed. She was badly hurt in the accident and suffered a broken leg, a few cracked ribs, and cuts on her face. Thankfully, Coleman fully healed from her injuries. This accident did not stop her from flying. She went back to performing dangerous air tricks in 1925. Her hard work helped her to save up enough money to purchase her own plane, a Jenny – JN-4 with an OX-5 engine. Soon she returned to her hometown in Texas to perform for a large crowd. Since Texas was segregated, the managers planned to create two separate entrances for African Americans and white people to get into the stadium. Coleman refused to perform unless there was only one gate for everyone to use. After many meetings, the managers agreed to have one gate, but people would still have to sit in segregated sections of the stadium. She agreed to perform and became famous for publicly standing up for her beliefs.

On April 30, 1926, Bessie Coleman took a test flight with a mechanic named William Wills. Wills piloted the plane while Coleman sat in the passenger seat. At about 3,000 feet in the air, a loose wrench got stuck in the engine of the aircraft. Wills could no longer control the steering wheel, and the plane flipped over. Coleman was not wearing a seatbelt. At the time, airplanes did not have a roof. Due to her un-fastened seatbelt, when the plane flipped over Coleman fell out of the open plane. She did not survive the fall. Wills crashed the aircraft a few feet away and also died in the accident. Her death was heartbreaking for thousands of people across the world. At her funeral in Chicago, famous activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett delivered her eulogy.

Though she died at the age of 34, her legacy continues to inspire communities all over the country. In 1931, the Challenger Pilots’ Association of Chicago started a tradition of flying over Coleman’s grave every year. Many aviation clubs were named in her honor, including the Bessie Coleman Aero Club, organized by William Powell in the 1930s, and the Bessie Coleman Aviators, which formed in Chicago in 1977. In 1995, the “Bessie Coleman Stamp” was made to commemorate all of her accomplishments. In 2023, the U.S. Mint released a special quarter featuring Bessie Coleman as part of the American Women Quarters™ Program.

February is Black History Month
To celebrate Black History Month, People, inc. will be posting about famous people of color, who have made a positive difference/change in the world!

Hi Folks,

Due to the predicted bad weather, we have made some changes to our advocacy schedule this week.

United Voices for Change will be virtual only tonight from 5-6pm.
Zoom Meeting ID 716-322-7070
Password 12344
Tonight they will be working on the Right of the Month for February.

Core Advocacy scheduled for 1/17/24 from 10:30a-11:30a at 2128 Elmwood Room 104B has been cancelled this month.

Stay warm and safe.

Rick

United voices for Change from 5-6p on Tuesday 1/16 will be virtual only due to predicted bad weather and Core Advocacy on Wednesday 1/17 from 10:30-11:30 am is cancelled also because of predicted bad weather.
Please call our Advocacy Dept at 716-322-7070 if you have any other questions.

Due to weather events United voices for change will be held virtually tomorrow evening

Brothers & Sisters meeting tonight will be canceled tonight we will see everybody next month